1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a guide fence for a cutting machine, i.e., a guide fence provided in a cutting machine, such as a bench circular sawing machine, for use in positioning a workpiece on the cutting machine, and to a cutting machine in which such a guide fence is used.
2. Description of Related Art
In a bench circular sawing machine as one example of a cutting machine, its main body including a rotary blade is attached to an arm provided upright on a rear portion of a base, in such a manner that the main body is swingable upward and downward. By the downward swinging operation of the main body, the rotary blade is moved accordingly so as to cut a workpiece placed on the base. On the base is provided a guide fence extending laterally and having a guide surface vertical to a top face of the base so that a workpiece may be pressed against the guide surface, to facilitate positioning of the workpiece.
In cases where the workpiece to be cut is for crown moldings (decorative parts which are to be fitted to corners between a ceiling and an adjoining wall), however, the workpiece is rested in an unstably leaned position against the guide surface during cutting process. Therefore, even if the workpiece is pressed against the guide surface, the crown molding workpiece would become so shaky and unsettled that the workpiece could disadvantageously not be positioned adequately. With this in view, U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,320 B1 discloses an L-shaped holder capable of holding a crown molding workpiece in a leaned position with its upper and lower edges retained by rims of the holder. Thus, the holder with a crown molding workpiece held therein is pressed against the guide fence so as to make the workpiece positioned adequately.
On the other hand, the holder is an extra part to be provided in addition to the guide fence solely for crown molding workpieces, and thus requires additional manufacturing costs and managerial tasks. Moreover, crown molding workpieces should be attached to and detached from the holder one by one for each cutting process, which may be considered to be burdensome and inconvenient.